Mind the Dark: A Gamified Exploration of Deceptive Design Awareness for Children in the Digital Age

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Khan, Noverah, Daud, Hira Eiraj, Shahid, Suleman
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Khan, Noverah
Daud, Hira Eiraj
Shahid, Suleman
author_facet Khan, Noverah
Daud, Hira Eiraj
Shahid, Suleman
contents This paper addresses the critical issue of deceptive design elements prevalent in technology, and their potential impact on children. Recent research highlights the impact of dark patterns on adults and adolescents, while studies involving children are scarce. In an era where children wield greater independence with digital devices, their vulnerability to dark patterns amplifies without early education. Our findings show a significant positive impact of dark pattern education on children's awareness, revealing that heightened awareness considerably alters children's navigation of social media, video games, and streaming platforms. To this end, we developed a gamified application aimed at instructing children on identifying and responding to various dark patterns. Our evaluation results emphasize the critical role of early education in empowering children to recognize and counter deceptive design, thereby cultivating a digitally literate generation capable of making informed choices in the complex landscape of digital technology.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_23017
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mind the Dark: A Gamified Exploration of Deceptive Design Awareness for Children in the Digital Age
Khan, Noverah
Daud, Hira Eiraj
Shahid, Suleman
Human-Computer Interaction
This paper addresses the critical issue of deceptive design elements prevalent in technology, and their potential impact on children. Recent research highlights the impact of dark patterns on adults and adolescents, while studies involving children are scarce. In an era where children wield greater independence with digital devices, their vulnerability to dark patterns amplifies without early education. Our findings show a significant positive impact of dark pattern education on children's awareness, revealing that heightened awareness considerably alters children's navigation of social media, video games, and streaming platforms. To this end, we developed a gamified application aimed at instructing children on identifying and responding to various dark patterns. Our evaluation results emphasize the critical role of early education in empowering children to recognize and counter deceptive design, thereby cultivating a digitally literate generation capable of making informed choices in the complex landscape of digital technology.
title Mind the Dark: A Gamified Exploration of Deceptive Design Awareness for Children in the Digital Age
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.23017